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Minimi —i^———w— —MMiMi^iw^i—i^ 
 
 The Failure of Has Inspeotion in Halifax, 
 
 AND ITS RELATION TO THE 
 
 LATE HALIFAI GAS LIGHT COMPANY. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 PEOPLE'S HEAT ANfl LIGHT COMPANY, 
 
 AND OTHER REMARKS IN CONNECTION WITH 
 
 GAS SUPPLY AT HALIFAX, N. 5., 
 
 W. p. BROWNE, 
 
 LATE OF HALIFAX (JAS LIGHT CO., AND FOHMRRLY WITH JNO. VICKEBY <k CO., 
 OWNERS A::D LKSSEES of OAS undertakings, gas ENGINEERS AND 
 METRR MANUFACTURERS, EXETER, G. B. 
 
 HALIFAX, N. 8. : 
 Hollow A Y Broa., Printers, 69 & 71 Granville St., 
 
 1900. 
 
I 
 
 4s 
 
The Failure of Gas Inspection in Halifax, &e., &e. 
 
 Halifax, N. B., Annmt 1, 1900. 
 
 During the present session at Ottawa, clause 36 of the Gas Inspection 
 Act has been altered. From a taxpayer or gas consumer's standpoint the 
 administration of gas inspection is so faulty, the wonder is that the time 
 of Parliament should be engaged in so trifling a change. Apparently, 
 the oidy eifect will be to relieve four or five gas undertakings from paying 
 tees amounting to $9 per year each, and add $6 each to some smaller ones. 
 
 Thfc writer is familiar with the ?tfitatiuns and causes leading to the 
 drst G',s Inspection Act, 1861, in Britain. He was also a spectator in 
 the gallery at Ottawa, 1873, when the first Dominion rpeasure was under 
 discussion. 
 
 The intent of gas inspection was to serve and protect the interest of 
 the gas cnnsuming pubHc, the assumption being that gas undertakings 
 were able to protect themselves. Gas experts, however, who have had 
 the qualifying experience, know full well thai the benefits to gas under* 
 takings have been incalculable and to consumers problematical. 
 
 Before gas inspection in Britain, gas undertakings made only very 
 moderate profits ; many had a struggle to pay dividends even with high 
 selling prices, but the inspection law has been one of the contributing 
 causes for increasing profits in leaps and bound.s, giving dividends of 
 7, 10, 12 and 1+ percent., with large margins for rest, and constantly 
 diminishing .selling rates. 
 
 Take the important factor " the meter." When inspection was first 
 introduced the inability of dry meters to register all their gas was so 
 well known, gas undertakings were very slew to adopt them. These 
 faults have been gradually overcome, and the dry meter is now popular. 
 
 Ninety per cent, of the meters in use were wet meters, gas under- 
 dertakings being firndy persuaded they were an absolutely fair measuring 
 in.strumcnt for buyer and .seller, unless tampered with on the cojHumers' 
 premises; stricter systematic observations, stimulated V)y the iiispecti(ni 
 law, gradually developed an awakening that the confidence had been a 
 fool's paradise. 
 
 In the earlier history of gas undertakings 25 per cent, to 50 per cent 
 
of gas made was commonly lost, unaccounted for. 'fin's was supposed to 
 be due to condensations and leakages, principally from the street pipes, 
 but closer observations raatle clear that meters were responsible for much 
 of the losses, and in some cases the major part. These conditions have 
 gradually changed in proportion to officers of gas undertakijigs having 
 acquired comprehensive grip (if the situation. Part of the mechanism of 
 the early wet meter was a sido tube for determining the full water line. 
 When water was supplied without proper knowledge the tube lent itself 
 to temporary fast registration, and consumers were often victims of their 
 own zeal for watering the meters " ioo frequently" The inspection law 
 did abolish the possibility of this tube being made to operate to the 
 consumer's disadvantage. 
 
 Another part of the mechanism still retained is the inlet valve — 
 placed as a sentinel at the internal entrance of the meter, with u duty of 
 warning when a condition is reached to pass gas without registering 
 Theoretically and by experimental testing this arrangement was generally 
 accepted to be perfect, but later knowledge demonstrated that with every 
 day working conditions the arrangement capriciously failed of its purpose, 
 frequently resulting in a deviating discriminatiorj against the gas 
 undertaking. 
 
 The effect of this was variable bills, with universal dissatisfaction to 
 consumers, who firmly distrusted meters and always believed the larger 
 bills were evidences of guess work and imposition, when in fact the 
 discrepancies were wholly in favor i>f ihe consumer. 
 
 Corroboration of the foregoing would be easy by reference to results 
 outside Canada, but confirmation is more to the purpose if available 
 within your own jurisdiction. 
 
 The character of a meter service cannot be fully appreciated without 
 thorough internal inspection. This opportunity the writer had during 25 
 yeais' intimate association with the late Halifax Gas Co. and its meters, 
 commencing 1873, a year before the Act was put in operation. 
 
 The Gas Co's. selling price at that time was $3 per m. It had been 
 higher, and the evidence of a series of systematic overhauls and radical 
 reconstructions, in which the writer was chief factor, left no doubt in the 
 writer's mind that if all tlie gas delivered through the meters to the 
 company's consumers had been faithfully registered — the revenue yielded 
 not only would have paid better dividen<ls, but sufficient for the 
 redemption of the whole of the capital — converting the undertaking into 
 a free gift to its shareholders, with a premium over. 
 
Anyone qualified by special knowledge is aware that conditions exi st in 
 a gas meter distributing service which will ditf^rentially vary losses by 
 short registration. For example, suppose ar^;gregate losses average 10 per 
 cent, per meter, the liability is for higher per centage of loss with large 
 consumers and lesser per centages with the smaller. 
 
 It will be out of pkce to name private firms or householders con- 
 nected with striking cases of this nature which come to the writer's 
 memory — there are, however, some not personal, to wit, the Richmond 
 Station, Round House and Repair Shops of the N. S. R. This was a case 
 where the meter certaiidy failed to register within 50 per cent, of the 
 gas passed through it. After the absorption into the I. C. R., each 
 department was served by separate meters, but the surroundings contri- 
 buted to much intermittent registration, and in the case of the Round 
 H use it was occasionally so glaring that the bills had to be computed — 
 and one quarter $40^ was added to the registered consuTr^ption with the 
 concurrence of the then Locomotive Superintendent. 
 
 Tiiere are other cases connected with the Dominion, also the 
 Imperial services, the banks, the newspaper offices, especially the 
 " Chronicle," also some of the city churches and many large consumers, 
 who received for years varying per centages of gas not charged in the 
 company's bills. 
 
 All these meters were certified cor -♦ ; some by the (hybrid) city gas 
 meter inspection, the others by Domiu 
 
 It must however be admitted that tht.;- losses were in part contri- 
 buted to by the perfunctory work of the company's servants, and their 
 Inability to comprehend the unfavorable conditions when making their 
 periodical inspecLions to see that all was in proper order. 
 
 All the foregoing is contrary to popular impressions, but this letter is 
 only intended for limited circulation. Possibly, however, it may 
 reach the eye of some who will think the reference to Halifax ought for 
 personal reasons to be challenged and discredited, but the writer in 
 advance questions their ability to do this on its merits. 
 
 The writer remembers a disputed meter case (reported in the London 
 Gas flournal) protracted over several months by adjournments and 
 fresh trials. Three different district inspectors after examinatioii testified 
 the meter to be correct, but finally it was found, " and not by the 
 inspectors," that the index had zi\ improper multiple. 
 
 Some instances of this character came to the notice of tiie writer in 
 his Halifax experience. Two representative cases may be n>entioned, one 
 
being that of a brewery muter which owing tc the Krat multiplier 
 wheel having 25 teeth instead of 20, the meter registeretl 20 per 
 cent. hIow during the eight yearw it was at the brewery. The other ca.se 
 was a meter in use at a private house where the consumption had been 
 invariably small but uniforn). A disputed sudden jump in the registra- 
 tration l^d to examination, v/hich revealed the index recording hundreds 
 and thousands cubic feet correctly, but the multiple fwr tens of thousands 
 having less than ils proper quota of teeth, the recording became too fast. 
 
 The h/ewery n>eter had passed inspection under the city arrangement 
 —the other by the Dominion inspection. 
 
 With the preaent methods of inspection it is not difficult for an expert 
 to arrange indexes with various per centages of error, either alow or fast 
 and inspectors will certify them correct. Two meters, Nos. 51,536 and 
 82,283, differing from each other 40 per ceut^ were certitied correct in the 
 Halifax office in January, 1897, — the inspector did not know these meters 
 were only intended for cancellatiiHi and not for use. 
 
 The question of index in.spection is not new — ^difficulties are thought 
 to block the way which do not exist when it is recognized that indexes 
 niust be inspected before attachment to meters, and so constructed th^t 
 separation < f parts is imp(>ssible without destroying a revenue stamp, 
 the absence of which should make the index illegal. 
 
 The Inspection Act penalizes use ol unveriHed and sexennial unre- 
 verihed meters. When the old gas company went out of business they 
 left a clean sheet, but the Blue Books show, relaxation of the obligation 
 has Ix^en extended to the Halifax. Hoat and Light Co. This remission 
 probably means a loss of $700 to $800 to the Inland Revenue, and the 
 writer is of opinion if the census of tlie company's meters were taken to 
 dale quite 25 per cent in use would be found unlawful and liable to be 
 destroyed under the terms of the Dominion Gas Act. 
 
 Glut of work in the chronically fi'Ssilizeil Halifax office will be the 
 plea for the relaxation, but it would l>e interesting to learn if a double 
 case of at temp' ed nepotism has not l>een a factor. 
 
 Study of the Blue Book for '99, makes noteworthy thit the cost of 
 inspection for Halifax or N. S., was ^2,044 and the total income, 
 including from E. Light, was $1,246 — deceit $708, and that 5 il E. Light 
 and gas meters were inspected ; while in Britisli Columbia the cost was 
 $1,025, tlie income $1,91.?, and surplus $>i88, and 1,536 E. Light and gas 
 mtilers inspected. 
 
 tl 
 tl 
 cl 
 
In Britain tho scale of fees is one-fifth that of the Dominion, and 
 thoy cover all cost of meter iiis{MHjtiuns. 
 
 The writer is not unacquainted with the inspection offices of the four 
 eastern provinces, (not including P. E. I.,) also their incumbents, and the 
 writer has known some of the latter to reject perfect meters owing to their 
 own want of perspicacity to understand that meters had not the duty 
 of maintaining a steaily light if worked beyond theiv own proper 
 indicated capacity. 
 
 Whut may be described as another of the idiosyncrasies of gas meter 
 inspection in caused by inspector's inability to command the correct use 
 of the standard test meter. 
 
 A standard test meter, to be a correct measure, deyjends on a [)ositive 
 water line — under every working condition — within its measuring 
 drum. This water line is subject to displacements, varying with varying 
 speeds, and the practical effect of which is a sensible and important 
 difference in measui-ement^ but adjusting attachments enable an operator 
 of full knowledge to restore the water to the correct measuring lij*e, in 
 which condition the test meter is one of the most interesting, simple 
 and perfect in the catalogue of gas testing apparatus. 
 
 The writer has known Dominion inspectors of many years' standing 
 inspecting large meters unconscious of or misunderstanding the full use of 
 the nece.^sary adjustments, and in consequence rejecting pf>sitively correct 
 meters, and repeatedly, if inspectors' interpretation of the necessary 
 adjustment had been adhered to, other meters would have shared the 
 same fate. In the latest instance of this kind which passed under the 
 writer's observation, the rejection of the meter would have cost its 
 owner $12 for fees besides many a dollar for other consequent expenses. 
 
 The test meter is not in every day, use and an operator without good 
 practical meter knowledge would likely forget mere mechanical mani- 
 pulation for securing true measure — therefore he should be required say 
 once a year, to give a sectional drawing (not always the same section) of 
 the meter, showing effect of the water displacement within and outside 
 the measuring drum — and to be sure that the subject was absolutely 
 clear to his mental vision, the sectional drawing should be supplemented 
 by a specification describing the correct, and also a wrong, method of 
 adjusting test meters. 
 
 The foregoing has reference only to some of the idiosyncrasies of meter 
 inspection, but the inspection of gas also in Halifax, for illuminating 
 power, exhibits peculiarities, and it ought to be emphasized that previous 
 
■ 
 
 6 
 
 to the Dominion Inspection Act, the Halifax Gas Light Co., were 
 supplying 24 c.p. gas and upwanla, and notwithstanding the then selling 
 price, $3 per ra., the co&t of standard light to the CDnsumers was cheaper 
 then the present $1.50 per m., — true, part of this was due to the dettcieut 
 registration of the meters. 
 
 The 4 or 6 cubic feet j>er hour burners of that period givii.g satis- 
 factory light have later been displaced by burners consuming 6, 7 and 8 
 cubic feet per hour. 
 
 Illuminating gas for several causes is subject to frecjuent changes, 
 and where inspection for c.p. is a positive reality, the average of every 
 three days must come up to the required standard, or the penalties are 
 strictly enforced, unless tnere be good cause for failure — say a break 
 down of the plant or a strike of workn»en. 
 
 The Blue Book for 1899 just issued shows that 21 tests for c.p. were 
 made in Halifax during the year, and the average of the 21 tests is given 
 at 17.10, but it may be safely claimed if 365 daily tests had been made 
 the average result would have fallen very far short of the 16 c.p. standard. 
 In fact the writer is sure an unbiassed expert with trained physical vision 
 for this specialty would often have pronounced the gas just 10 to 12 
 c. p. ; this would be about the lighting value of the company's heating 
 gas when at its best. 
 
 The superficiality of c. p. inspection in Halifax cannot be better 
 illastrated than by reference to the time required for the purpose of 21 
 tests. The exact time for the observations for each test being 10 minutes, 
 and with a liberal allowance of an hour besides for each for preliminaries, 
 calculations and entries, we find that 25 hours per year only is required 
 to examine Halifax gas for illuminating power. 
 
 The Auer L;imp has reduced gas photometry to utter insignificance, 
 and made the ilhirainating clauses of the Inspection Act obsolete. 
 
 The makeshift consumer may be willing to burn gas by the old 
 .nethod and cctent with 3.20 standard candle light per cub. ft. of 16 
 c. p. gas consumed, but the more enlightened consumer now burns his 
 gas wiiih an Auer Lamp, which yields him 10 to 12 standard candle light 
 for every cub. ft., and the writer has reasons to believe Auer Lamps in 
 use in Britain give even higher results. 
 
 The illuminating power of gas consumed in an Auer burner is not of 
 material importance, but ts calorific value is. This may seem to point 
 to calorific instead of photometric test. 
 
■Commercial gase.-< are not calorific in ecjual ilugree, or «loes the quality 
 run on all-fours with candle power. 
 
 Calorific n&s " Excelsior " is natural j»as, bat this oif coarse can only 
 he obtained in th« neighbourhitod of gas Avells. Hut gas drawn from 
 ordinary coal (without onrichnient) is most generally available and best 
 iills the bill, especially as a luminous naked flame is often desirable. 
 
 The editor of the London Gas Journal, and there is no higher authority, 
 lately described th(; Auer Lamp as a radical revolution for gas lighting, 
 and said the only desidt?ratum now was clean cheap gas, free from 
 «innionia and sulpluirettcil hydrogen. 
 
 This leads t.() the purity clauses of the Inspection Act. Gas purifica- 
 tion was formerly a rule of thumb business, until the Metropolitan, 
 (London) \\. of Works led the way and ap|>ointed by Parliamentary 
 authority a scientific b(»aril, vix., Profs. Lethel)y, Tindall, Huslev, 
 <Jrookes, Patterson and others of .scientific eminence in succession, to 
 ♦experiment, control, and teach London gas undertakers how to reduce the 
 system to a principle, and what wa.s an erratic and perplexing difficulty, 
 has now become a work of simple vigilant routine. 
 
 Elimination of the two impurities, immonia (N H3.) and sulphuretted 
 hydrogen (H2 S) are now such simple proces.ses, the more occasional 
 presence of the vile s ".elling H2 S unless thronqh breakdown of the 
 plant, is an unpardonable neglect, ami a condition suifirlal fot gas under- 
 takings, calculated to drive consumers to the purer electric light. 
 
 The presence of N H3 beyon<l a small limit in the distributed gas 
 would be a serious detriment, cau.sing obstructions and damage to i/he 
 Ci)mpany'8 meters ami corrosive ol)structions to the consumers' atting.s. 
 This penalizes neglect to remove these impurities, ami N H3 i)eing a 
 marketable product puts a premium on its removal. 
 
 The Blue Books show that inspectii)ns were made in C only of the 
 larger cities of the Dominion for sulphur comijounds other than H2 S. 
 If these inspections have secured hygienic or commercial benefits then 
 Hamilton, Winnipeg and 35 other places in Canada with gas supplies, 
 where these inspections have nover been made, are being wrongfully 
 neglected. 
 
 These compounds are not pungent, and had no history in gas nomen- 
 clature until late in the sixties, when Prof. Letheby, " the appointed 
 investigator after an exhaustive analytical inquiry for cause of decay of 
 Leather (I)ook) bindings in some of the public offices, demonstrated the 
 existence of the.se compounds" in London gas. Also that they were the 
 
B 
 
 cause of the injury. The inquiry referred to offices where the con- 
 sumptions were large, it was claimed, however, that a proper system of 
 ventilation would have prevented the trouble. Gas never found favor 
 for lighting important public libraiies or other important public buildings 
 unless all the products of combustion were excluded from the internal 
 atmosphere. The introduction of the purer electric light has simplified 
 the whole question, and extended the usefulness of many institutions 
 formerly closed at sunset. This has considerably nuUitied objections to 
 the non pungent compounds. The newer light has also superseded gas 
 in stores and dwellings needing la/ge volumes of light. The Auer 
 Lamp, too, reduces the volume of these products. But common sulphur 
 matches are responsible for sending into the breathing atmosphere more 
 products of this character then is yielded by an ordinary consumption 
 of gas. All this combined wiih the radical changes the science of 
 lighting has and is undergoing, seem to relegate the present clauses of 
 the Gas Inspection Act to a place among the antiquities. 
 
 Generally these particular compounds have never been considered 
 important. In fact many of the largest municipal undertakings have been 
 entirely free from the obligations. The Blue Books show that the 
 average number of inspections in Halifax have been 19 per year for 3 
 years. This i.? good evidence that the l)epartment at Ottawa have 
 little faith in the practical importance of these inspections to the 
 consumer. 
 
 After Prof. Lethoby unearthed these products the metropolitan 
 London authorities following up their fixed policy of putting every 
 possible restriction on the gas undertakings, applied for parliamentary 
 power to appoint examiners and referees to fix a limit. The writer has 
 understood that a member of the Dominion Cabinet was then in London, 
 and after his return introduced and carried the Dr>minion Inspections 
 Act, incorporating features of the London special measure. 
 
 The administration of gas inspection in Britain is entirely municipal. 
 The Acts simply enable Local Bodies if they see fit to provide such 
 inspection as may .'^eem best suited for their own local wants. In 
 London, however, the conditions are so severe, and insisted on, they 
 seem harrassing and oppressive. 
 
 The clauses of the Inspection Act were up before a Parliamentary 
 Committee in 1884, the business being mainly to adjust the fees to make 
 income meet expenditure. 
 
9 
 
 Sir Richard Cartwright was reported to have strongly condemned 
 charging the deficits incurred in administering the Act to the general 
 taxes. The Blue Books contain the Commissioner of Standai-ds apologies 
 for this in his yearly reports. 
 
 Deficits with gas inspection do not occur at Montreal or Toronto, 
 but surpluses, which rightly should go into the civic treasuries. 
 Diverting these surpluses to help provide for deficits of inspection else- 
 where, is as unreasonable as taxing the two cities for lighting other than 
 their own streets. In the case of Halifax the aggregate deficits have been 
 above $20,000, without giving an iota of benefit to the consumers. 
 
 
 Protection is much needed both for gas consumers and investors 
 (when street franchises are concerned), against the facility with which 
 speculative promoters obtain lej^islative sanction for schemes which 
 originate frequently with the object of wrecking undertakings in which 
 investments have been made in good faith. 
 
 Under our constitution, perhaps, this question is more within the 
 sphere of Provincial than Dominion polity. 
 
 We have read much lately ^bout Canadian investments in 
 undertakings promoted down amongst the Spanish Americans, but these 
 people have forgotten their cunning if they are not exacting more than 
 verbal promises from the promoters, which will have to be kept to the 
 letter, or startling reprisals will ensue. It will be useless to plead that 
 working results have not come up to anticipations. 
 
 In this way tens of mdlions sterling of European capital have been 
 wasted in these states, but the original promoters make lots of money, 
 and the investor in good faith goes to the wall. 
 
 While Spanish American methods are not to be commended, there 
 should be parliamentary rules to bar promoters of mere speculative 
 schemes obtaining valuable franchises without obligcitions to give sub- 
 stantial public benefits and against detriment to authorized existing 
 umlertakings. 
 
 An illustration to the point is the case of the Heat and Light Co. 
 Four years ago Halifax woke up to the fact that the Provincial Legisla- 
 ture had given this company a charter. Although tiis was bound U) 
 disastrously afl'ect the investors of $400,000 in the Halifax Gas Co., not 
 one in ten of its shareholders or one per cent, of the citizens had an idea 
 
10 
 
 that a ->cljeme of this character affecting tlieir interest was im fer ther 
 consideration of the Legislature. It is questionable even if the Aldermen, 
 who are supposeil to be guardians of the civic interest, were cognizant of 
 the exact privileges sought for or what obligations were to be imposed 
 for the extraordinary right to driTe an anthoriaed undertaking out of the 
 field. The dexterous way the H. and L. charter obtained sanctioit 
 would lead to the assumption that the then Legislators and Aldermen 
 did not realize at proper value the privileges being given away. Con- 
 eessions to lay pipes, with right for all time to break up (costly) streets,. 
 are everywhere considered — (" unless in very new or Mushroonj Towns") 
 — to be an important contribution to a gas undertaking, and tl)e owners- 
 of the streets in reality become silent partners with substantial claims. 
 If the Halifax Council, for purposes of its water supply, w re lo lay 
 pipes across some private field or even waste land it would have to buy 
 the privilege. But the H, and I>. have fall privileges of the streets, 
 without a single obligation, not even the maximun) price of gas fixed. In 
 fact they have lately increased the price of gas for heat purposes 60%, 
 and this credits the company with the increased difference of heat value 
 of the gas now supplied. And it will be no surprise to the writer to 
 hear an early proposal to advance the price of gas for lighting purposes 
 on the plea of dearer coal. Much will depend on the Electric Light Co., 
 unless they fall into line. The cost of lighting by either system too 
 nearly balances. The average cost of coal per ton which the old company 
 converted into gas was at least 2|. times higher than the value of coal 
 gasified by the H, and L. 
 
 In the first decade of the century Mr. Winsor went to and fro in 
 Britain advocating the advantages of a Bye-Product Gas scheme, to bo 
 named National Light and Heat, to abolish domestic coal fires, smoke 
 and chimney sweeping, give incredible profits to investors, or if 
 Parliament would nationalize the scheme, the Royalties could gradually 
 clear oflf the National Debt and pay the annual maintenance of the 
 Army and Navy. 
 
 When the Halifax H. and L. was being financially floated the inspired 
 newspaper literature promised extraordinary developments from the 
 undertaking. Fuel gas in embarrassing abundance to be had almost for 
 the taking, also rich and cheap illuminating gas — both the result of their 
 new system, changing what was old time secondary jjroducts into 
 primary ones, which would cover all manufacturing charges and interest 
 on capital, leaving large surpluses. 
 
vm fer the 
 Akleimeiv 
 o^iiizant of 
 )e imposed 
 ; out of the 
 id sanctioih 
 1 Aldermen 
 way. Coii- 
 tly) streets,. 
 n» lowns > 
 the owners 
 itial claims. 
 \v re to lay 
 have to buy 
 the streets' 
 as hxed. In 
 [•poses 60%^ 
 f heat value 
 le writer to 
 iug purposes 
 c Light Co., 
 system too 
 )ld company 
 alue of coal 
 
 and fro in 
 heme, to bo 
 lires, smoke 
 stors, or if 
 Id gradually 
 \auce of the 
 
 the inspired 
 ts from the 
 id almost for 
 esult of their 
 )roducts into 
 ; and interest 
 
 11 
 
 Abnndauf. cheap fuel gas and the manipulation of the new products 
 were to add numerous industries contributing much to the city's prosperity. 
 
 There are elements in a coke oven system to enable it to hold its own 
 for a town gas supply in a suitable locality, but the conditions do not 
 exist in Halifax. IJefore the company had put a brick on their site the 
 writer so expressed himself in conversation with a (now) member of the 
 Dominion Cabinet, who thought the capitalists reported to be behind the 
 undertaking uoderstocKl what they were doing, but he regretted the 
 probabl") disHgurem. nt of the North West Arm. 
 
 Much was said in tlie inspired newspapers about the foreign capitalists 
 who were interested in the undertaking as an experiment. It would be 
 interesting to know how much they invested, and what they hold. 
 
 No experiments were needed, for every |>hase of the system had 
 passed that stage, some of them decades back. 
 
 The whole history of the undertaking makes plain that the under 
 lying object was promotion profits. For years there had been manoeuver^ 
 ing to Black-Mail, and failing that, to oust the old Gas Company. One 
 in the very forefront of that movement told the writer that the old 
 company was rich enough to buy otf any opposition. But the skillful 
 presentment of this visionary scheme apparently imposed on L.^gislators, 
 Aldermen and the [)ublic. After the Charter was obtained one of the 
 leading promoter.", in a street conversation with the writer, confes.sed to 
 no knowledge of the gas busines.s, and that his object had been to make 
 money for himself. However much or little of this may have been the 
 object of others concerned, no doubt there is now awkward humiliation. 
 
 The abandonment of all the specialties of the scheme (differing from 
 an ordinarv gas works) leaving it capitalized to strangulation, is proof of 
 its visionary pretentions. 
 
 It is a IJxed [u'inciple in all settled communities that no street franchises 
 be given to gas undertakings without securing the public from charges 
 above what the natural local conditions make possible. Wh-n this is 
 secured it means, if ca|)italization l>e too high, the investor suffers and not 
 the consumer. This is a check against the evil of over capitalization. 
 
 The natural local conditions of Halifax are favorable for very cheap 
 gas, but these advantages have been all nullified. However, with the 
 present price of Electric Light in Halifax, Gas business at $1.50 per M 
 has no expansion, but is ci.nstantly declining. The growth of the city being 
 ^^Iow a)iy increased consumption due to a reduction of price will not 
 improve the revenue. Therefore the H. and L. undertaking, wit»: a 
 
12 
 
 CAPITAL OUT or ALL PROPORTlU?* TO ITS POSSIBLE BUSLVESS, WlTI Fiave- » 
 
 ilifficult positiop. to facif 
 
 Tho weakness of the oJd Gas Company was its excessive capital 
 $400,000 (less than half that of the H. and L) Much of this was sunk 
 in unnecessary profitless property and costly enlargements of manufac- 
 turing plant out of all j)ro|xjrtion to its needs. If the capital and 
 business had Ijeen projxirly bjihnced they might have supplier] gis at $1 
 per M leaving good profits. 
 
 A p<^)int too often overlookfd is, rf other manufacturing or trading 
 nndertakings are overcapitalized and unable profitably to sell their goods 
 at market prices, the consumer can hmj (dsewhere, but ii> the case of 
 nndertakings, {say g(xs,) with e.xiclusive monoiwly of streets, tiie consumers 
 are helpless. Therefore, representative lx)dies have a higher iluty in guaril- 
 *ng consumers' interesv by limiting the capital to the actual needs of the 
 gas supply, giving no jx)wer to pay promotion fees or issue watering 
 stock, fixing an initial selliivg price of gas, witli regulations to guVHrn same 
 in case of substantial changes in cost of raw material or labor, or 
 economies due to any future improved system of nianufacture, and for 
 the supplying, underiakiiKj — afysoiute security from distuibance — without 
 eompenaation 
 
 In adilressing this to ohe Standards Departn>ent of the Inland 
 Kevenoe the writer is aware that a jxirtion of the contents is not relevant 
 to its business, but it may be explained that the purpose of including the 
 whole subject together is for information elsewhere. 
 
 W. P liROWNK 
 
 To the Standards Department, 
 
 Inland Revenue., Ottawa. 
 
 HoUoway Bros., Printers Halifax. 
 
ESS, win have- a 
 
 xcessive capital 
 >f this was sunk 
 its of manufac- 
 he capital and 
 iplietl gjs at $1 
 
 :rin<^ or trading 
 sell their goods 
 in the case of 
 s, the consumers 
 3r dniy in guanl- 
 kal needs of the 
 ■ issue watering 
 s to goVHrn same 
 d or labor, or 
 actiire, and for 
 ih&nce— wit houf 
 
 of the Inland 
 ts is not relevant 
 af including the 
 
 UROWNK